Investigating the Mediating Relationship Between Sustainability Orientations and Sustainable Performance in the SME Context of Tunisia

The purpose of this study is to investigate the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in between the sustainability orientation of managers and sustainable performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Tunisia. Besides that it aims to explore the impact of managers’ sustainability orientation on CSR practices, and how these activities could affect economic, social and environmental performance. The data have been collected by survey questionnaires from the owners and managers of SMEs across the manufacturing sector in Tunisia. Partial least square structural equation modelling statistical method has been used to analyse the research model using the software SmartPLS 3. The results reveal that CSR mediate the relationship between managers’ sustainability orientations and sustainability performance (except economic dimension). Moreover, the results also found that owners’ orientations towards sustainability positively influence CSR, and CSR also positively affect social and environmental sustainable performance. However, this study does not find a significant causal effect between CSR and economic sustainable performance. This study contributes to the Upper Echelon Theory by extending via empirical evidence with respect to sustainability, strategic, tactical orientations, CSR and sustainable performance. The limitations and direction for future research have been stated in this study.